I tried convincing village councils. Trees for lining the streets like those in Europe that had so surprised my wife, all of the same height and kind with no twisted ones and dead stubbles in between. For shading and brightening up the desolate dusty village streets -- turn your gloomy panteones into parks of delight!
Councilmen were interested and they appreciated the photos - especially Daguerre's "Boulevard du Temple", showing those orderly street trees in early 19th century Paris. But nothing came of it. Every three years municipal councils disappear, leaving 85% of their projects unfinished and successors come with new ideas. A fountain, yet another Juarez statue or a sport hall, right, and there is some money in that too. Trees simply take too long.

Planting wastelands and barren hills wasn't a practical idea either. Being communal no man's lands, they are left for grazing, wood gathering, burning and litter. Rustlers in the region are killed, so cattle are safe, but tree cutters and destroyers go unpunished, since no one really cares. Private plots aren't respected either and seedlings must be fenced, so most owners who don't live nearby just let them lie fallow.   

SUMMER RAINS.
And then, one day, someone gave me a booklet from 1950: "Inauguración de la Comisión Nacional del Olivo". President Aleman, dignitaries plopping champaign corks, speeches: "Mexico, The Olive Country!" ... "Three Million Olives Planted Already!" "But", this fellow complained, "I have never seen ONE olive tree that bears. Are you absolutely sure those carobs of yours WILL?"

Yes indeed - carobs, from the same Mediterranean winter-rain climates, the same soils - would they yield in Mexico's summer-rain regimes? Conaza, the Comisión de Regiones Aridas, referred me to ing. Piña Luján, he knew about trees. He did: the Dirección de Zonas Aridas, Conaza's predecessor, had planted thousands and thousands of carobs in Queretaro, Hidalgo and Coahuila around 1953. The trees had grown well - but no one ever yielded, not after 10, not after 15 years. Meanwhile the Dirección had disappeared in the mist of times, taking whatever data there might have been along. 
Data from South Africa, the world's only summer rainfall country with consistent agricultural research, were inconclusive: Pretoria's ornamental carobs did yield but were they watered in the dry winter season.
FAO Rome, CIAGR, Wageningen Holland, ICRA Nairobi, Davis California, etc., no one knew. Financed by the industrialised countries their investigations centre on large-scale farming and fodder industrialisation, not on carobs in third world highlands. Also, with tractors rapidly replacing horses and mules, interest in natural feeds was fading anyway. As to underscore that, San Diego County bulldozed down Coit's experimental carob plantation at that time, for housing development.
Around that time, too, I overheard a conversation between an English visitor and the New Zealand anthropologist then stationed at the Yanhuitlan Inifap":   
" Now if they are hungry, can't they plant fruit trees?"
" Yes.., yes..they could..."
" Well, let them stick trees in the ground so they can eat peaches and apricots".
" But the goats will come and eat them".
"Then, can't they fence the trees? I am sure they could, couldn't they?"
" Yes they could.... but they won't".
² then let them starve. They are lazy".

Altogether, I decided to stop for a while. Those Mixtecans were right: "we want to see those trees first". First see if the unirrigated Santa Rosa carobs would yield in summer rainfall climates indeed. No use planting water needing crops.

Likewise, many Oaxacan schools were set up with spacious fenced yards, for teaching ecology in practice. Once upon a time an out-of-the ordinary teacher, Humberto Ortiz, did so in far-away Nieves, Zacatecas, year after year, showing his students how to grow their own food and grapes. Finally he made it to the national press as a teacher-pioneer (Excelsior June 6, 1982), even got government support then. Sí se puede - It can be done.
           So far two female teachers near Huahuapan did promise me to plant some carobs at their schools. One of these days, I am going to see what happened.
Third on the list is Tonalá, (1300 m.), 40 minutes to the west of Huahuapan. Ex-president Cardenas, chairman of the Comisión de Río Balsas then, planted two carobs at his modest cottage there in the sixties. He must have known their merits.  The "General" is still held in dear memory by many in Tonalá and his carobs are still there. Some council members are interested in planting more.

Shade for Acapulco tourists... 
Furthermore, local Inifap people are now considering planting some carobs in hot semiarid LOWlands in the Acapulco area, at sea level. Late 19th century travellers observed prospering carobs in French tropical Africa, so why shouldn't they do in tropical Mexico as well. And if they do, they would certainly benefit tourism, and the heat could make them grow faster and reduce the period of coming into bearing to 5 or 6 years only (3).

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